They Knew…

By way of Bruce McQuain, who you will recall, I was a little harsh with last week on the AIG thing, comes this news:

The other shoe concerning the AIG “bonuses” and the administration’s knowledge of them is beginning to drop. The Politico reports that all of the outrage from both Congressional and administrative officials is simply a front. All of them knew.

Watching the coverage the past 24 hours, it would seem AIG just made public its plans to give top employees big bonuses. Wrong.

AIG disclosed its retention-bonus program more than a year ago, including bonuses directed to those handling the exotic derivatives that got the company and the country into this mess.

The bonuses were essentially a nonissue when AIG got its initial bailout money, almost $150 billion under President Bush in the two months surrounding the presidential election. Joe Biden, then the vice presidential nominee, came out strongly against the bailout. Obama did not.

Timothy Geithner, then at the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, was a huge proponent and architect of the AIG bailout. So if Obama had strong private opposition to the idea it did not affect his pick for the person who would oversee all bailouts.

In fact, if you look at the first line in the letter AIG CEO Liddy wrote to Geithner, it is clear he at least knew about all of this before last Friday:

Thank you for the open and frank conversation on Wednesday regarding the compensation arrangements at AIG Financial Products and AIG generally. I admit that the conversation was a difficult one for me.

And there’s more:

You have also asked AIG to rethink our 2008 corporate bonus proposals. The proposals AIG originally submitted to you are part of a deliberate process, recommended by me and supported by the independent compensation committee of AIG’s board of directors.

So what you’re seeing out of the Obama administration is demagoguery at its worst. This was a plan being worked with the previous administration and the present administration, and when AIG payed those monies out last week Friday (they were required by law to do so prior to March 15), it was with the full knowledge and apparent acquiescence of the Obama administration, and, one assumes, key members of Congress.

So, in the end this is as I said the other day in reference to some on the right… that moron Charles Grassley, for one, complaining about AIG:

…this thing is going to be fought out in the court of public opinion. If you think the court of public opinion is driven largely by facts, explain to me how it is that Obama is currently residing in the White House. So what is going to happen here is that we’re going to hear all about how the government is faultless in this and that all we need to go after is capitalist greed. If you think I’m exaggerating, listen to the tone of the pronouncements coming from Harry Reid Nancy Pelosi and so on.

However you lay this argument out, it all bottom lines at the Democrats running the government attempting to project the private businesses and banks involved as something evil. Something that desperately needs their supervision , and we’ll get that supervision whether the people want it or not. They are pitching that narrative for a reason. In my view, it’s the same reason as they are spending so very much time lately with Bernie Madoff. Granted, the guy is evil. At the same time he provides reinforcement to the Democrat position that all usual businesses are that way, that all rich people are that way, that all capitalists are that way. Call it what you will, but that is the biggest reality in our government right now, which is why the markets are still on their ass.

I am terribly afraid that the Democrats must not be allowed to control the narrative here, or there will never be a hope in hell of maintaining a capitalist society again in this country. That, I think, is their aim. Laying tone deaf label at the feet of any private firm, AIG included, at this point for operating inside the law and operating to make a profit allows the Democrats to extend that narrative.

Nobody’s keen on the idea of this money having been spent that way, but that is something that the Democrats should have thought of before they voted on a bill they didn’t read. The blame for that is squarely in their lap. Allow them to place any blame for any of this on AIG, and the Democrats control and extened that ‘evil capitalism’ narrative in the court of public opinion.

We now have proof that all this noise, all this smoke, all this faux outrage about AIG was planned in advance, and the American people are getting played for suckers by the Democrats. And frankly, I suspected something of the sort all along. The Democrats never mount that unified a howling session without some serious planning beforehand.

I argued as I did with Bruce’s logical argument because of an instinctive mistrust of anything the Democrats offer. Sad to say, those instinctive misgivings have never been disproven yet.

The question now becomes, will the Democrats be hed accountable for this outrage, as they ought?

Hoplophobia:

Firearms instructor Colonel Jeff Cooper coined the word in 1962 to describe a “mental disturbance characterized by irrational aversion to weapons”.[2] Cooper employed the term as an alternative to slang terms, stating: “We read of ‘gun grabbers’ and ‘anti-gun nuts’ but these slang terms do not (explain this behavior).” Cooper attributed this behavior to an irrational fear of firearms and other forms of weaponry. He stated that “the most common manifestation of hoplophobia is the idea that instruments possess a will of their own, apart from that of their user.”

Washington Times, editorial:

After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings.

Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.

Is BO a religious man?  I don’t think so   However, BO had best find himself a god, get down on his knees, and pray that no United States commercial plane ever gets skyjacked on his watch.

Two weeks ago, the President’s spokesman said that they were confident that they knew how every dime was being spent at AIG. Well clearly, they didn’t know what they were talking about. I think this is outrageous and I think the American people are rightly outraged that their tax money is going to pay bonuses to the very people that got this company in trouble.”

John Boehner, via Ace:

From Barack Obama’s socialist daydream, Bryan Bender, Boston Globe:

Two defense officials who were not authorized to speak publicly said Gates will announce up to a half-dozen major weapons cancellations later this month. Candidates include a new Navy destroyer, the Air Force’s F-22 fighter jet, and Army ground-combat vehicles, the offi cials said

From the real word, Australian:

RUSSIAN President Dmitry Medvedev last night ordered a large-scale Russian rearmament – including its nuclear arsenal – from 2011.

Mr Medvedev said Russia’s forces needed to be modernised to respond to international terrorism and NATO expansion.

Speaking before a meeting with defence chiefs, Mr Medvedev said a modern military “is a guarantee of our protection from any potential threat or attempts to put pressure on our nation”.

“From 2011, a large-scale rearmament of the army and navy will begin,” he said in Moscow.

Russia has nearly quadrupled its defence spending in recent years, aiming to resuscitate the military forces that deteriorated in the post-Soviet period.

 And you thought Mrs. Clinton pushed the reset button.  The World simply refuse to conform to BO’s vision.

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere: The BigsBlog Nightly Ramble.

This is the Shamrock Edition.  See, we couldn’t find any REAL rocks, and, well….

Happy St Patrick’s Day, which is  in Ireland a minor religious festival, wherein about everyone goes to church that night, and they all meet at the bar later. Of course they’d meet at the bar every OTHER night, too, so no biggie there.  Here in America, it’s an excuse to drink green beer; a substance most people wouldn’t touch on any other day of the year, and eat corned Beef and cabbage one night, and Ruben sandwiches for the next week afterward. It’s the one night out of the year where everyone who isn’t Irish is, and everyone who really is Irish is embarrassed.

• Oh, look! I found a red hand!  Seems Jack Murtha’s gotten caught yet again, funneling federal dollars to his supporters. Not that anyone will notice.
• It’s the narrative: Nice to see Michelle Malkin nearly as pissed as I’ve been over the AIG Derangement Syndrome, as she calls it. Check my comments at Q&O and here in last night’s Ramble.   chek also, Don Surber, who raises a good point… the AIG bonuses, amounted to around 1% of the bailout money.  Glenn notes this and snarks:
  

  CONGRESSIONAL PORK APOLOGISTS TELL US THAT EARMARKS DON’T MATTER BECAUSE THEY’RE A TINY FRACTION OF THE BUDGET: So why all the excitement about those AIG bonuses that represent only a tiny fraction of the bailout money? It’s all taxpayer money, right?

  … I’m telling you, folks it’s narrative manipulation.

• Not so stimulative: Add another governor who is rejecting stimulus money because Obama won’t let the states use the money to pay down debt.
• Noting the obvious: Justice Ginsberg is arranging for Chemo. Not too shocking, given the situation. But she’s also talking about there being a vacancy on the USSC… something we angered a number of people by daring to mention a few weeks ago.
• I’m rubber, you’re… well, you’re rubber too: Honorable mentions for myself and YetAnotherJohn at OTB’s caption contest
• Listserve: Go ahead, people… tell me again how the press isn’t manipulating us for their leftist freinds.
• Par-TAY! Par-TAY: Why is the White House in party mode? While they’re busy portrayng AIG as criminal, or at least tone deaf, for paying out bonuses they were contractually obligated to pay out, the White House is in full party mode… on the taxpayer’s dime.  Think about that as yu eat your chipped beef tonight, America.
• False advertising:  Apparently they arrested a guy wearing an “I (Heart) My Marriage” T shirt  for…ready?… choking the bleep out of his wife. An Obama supporter, perhaps?

Most people had already heard about Natasha Richardson’s ski accident in Canada, and her head injuries.

The NY Post is now reporting:

Actress Natasha Richardson is brain dead, after falling in a ski accident in Canada, friends told The Post today.

Liam Neeson, husband of the Broadway and screen star, left shooting of his movie in Toronto to rush to Richardson’s side at a Montreal hospital.

The British-born Richardson, 45, fell during a private lesson at Mont Tremblant resort yesterday and allegedly told resort employees she felt fine.

But an hour later, she complained of an extreme headache hours later and was rushed to a nearby hospital.

She was 45.

There’s added details at the Post.

Update I:  (Bit)

Yes, dear reader, save your angry emails to feedback… I know that after I posted this there was a load of  back and forth over her being really and truely dead, as opposed to just acting like it.  Trust me; At this point, the indications are that throwing the switch is a mere formality, forestalled long enough to gather the family at the bedside… after they’ve shipped her to New York.  And that was the indication that I got yesterday afternoon as well, which is why I never updated this post until now. 

And if you think I’m a little sharp on my response you should see some of the trash I got sent overnight.  In answer to that, let me say I’m not unsympathetic. It’s a tragedy, no question…  but this is the outcome. It is what it is, and I have no indication of a) My being substantially wrong or b) The situation is going to change.  The post stands.

Update II:  (David L)

Confirmed (Associated Press):

MONTREAL – Natasha Richardson, a gifted and precocious heiress to acting royalty whose career highlights included the film “Patty Hearst” and a Tony-winning performance in a stage revival of “Cabaret,” died Wednesday at age 45 after suffering a head injury from a skiing accident.

Alan Nierob, the Los Angeles-based publicist for Richardson’s husband Liam Neeson, confirmed her death in a written statement.

Our condolences to her family.

With a nod to WPGB’s Jim Quinn, I want to call to your attention, this monring to an article that appeared in National Review, yesterday, by  Hans A. von Spakovsky, called “A Leadership of Cowards?”

Here’s a bit of it:

Attorney General Eric Holder calls the U.S. “a nation of cowards” because we “do not talk enough about race.” I find this ironic, since the Justice Department seems embarrassed about a recent judgment in its favor by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. U.S. v. Ike Brown is a major Voting Rights Act case involving intentional race-based discrimination by local officials in Noxubee County, Miss.

When the Fifth Circuit issued its decision on February 27, there was complete silence from Justice. The department typically issues a press release after any significant litigation victory, and the Civil Rights Division trumpets every success. But not here. The silence from the nation’s leading news outlets was also deafening: Not a word was published about the case by the New York Times, the Washington Post, or any other major publication. Why? Because the offensive conduct at issue did not conveniently track with the Left’s view of race discrimination.

The Noxubee County case presents a deeply disturbing account of some of the most egregious racial discrimination the Justice Department has encountered in decades. In Noxubee, 80 percent of Democrats are black; 20 percent are white. (There are some Republicans as well, but the number is negligible.) The chairman of the Democratic party, Ike Brown, is black, and he, along with the Noxubee County Democratic Executive Committee, set about to effectively disenfranchise white voters.

The court decision shows that Brown had his own local version of Tammany Hall, and local election officials followed his orders. This included publishing in the local newspaper a list of 174 white Democratic voters whose eligibility he intended to challenge if they tried to vote in an upcoming election. According to the court, Brown compiled the list based on the individuals’ perceived lack of support for black candidates. One voter testified that she was so intimidated she didn’t vote. Another testified that she was so scared she felt she couldn’t approach the polls alone.

The court also found that Brown took measures to ensure that absentee ballots from black voters were automatically counted even if they didn’t comply with Mississippi law, while absentee ballots from white voters with the same deficiencies were challenged and not counted. He even reviewed many absentee ballots the night before an election, placing notes on them saying which should be counted and which should be rejected.

One victim, whose absentee ballot was basically stolen by the defendants and whose signature on the application and ballot envelope were obviously forged, was brought in a second time to testify after she was confronted by a member of the local Democratic party following her initial testimony. The witness was told that “we black people need to stick together” and was urged to testify that she “probably didn’t understand what [she was] being asked” during the first go-around.

The court also found that Brown recruited black individuals to run for office against white incumbents despite knowing that they didn’t meet residency requirements; refused to appoint whites as poll workers; and sent out Democratic party members to give unrequested “assistance” to black voters, marking their ballots for them and telling them how to vote. All of this was intended to dilute the voting strength of white voters and to achieve his goal, which he openly expressed — “that all of the county’s elected officials should be black.”

There’s a whole lot more, and I’ll advise you go and read the whole thing.   This is the kind of story that an Obama administration can’t let see the light of day, and so it will NOT see it. It runs afoul of the narrative that Obama and his people need to continue their control.

This is the kind of thing we’re up against, and is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about when I told Bruce McQuain last night, on the topic of AIG and the bonuses they paid their employees:

—this thing is going to be fought out in the court of public opinion.  If you think the court of public opinion is driven largely by facts, explain to me how it is that Obama is currently residing in the White House—

The ‘Global Warming’ narrative is the same way. Any facts that run contrary to the narrative will be ignored.We’ve discussed that here many times. That’s the kind of people that are currently in power, folks.  This is how they roll.

Forget fact. It’s the image, the narrative above all. I’ve been telling you for years, now that Obama supporters back him on pure emotion, not fact, and on that basis they never can be defeated by mere fact.  This Brown thing is another datapoint in the list of examples of how that works. I see the same thing in motion in the AIG thing. the pattern here is most revealing, people.. and I’ll tell you… This story being out in National Review, and Jim’s comments and mine not withstanding, nobody’s going to hear about it, in the end. Not really.  There’s been no Dianosaur coverage on the matter. None.  See for yourself.  What you’ll see is a lot of legal sites, along with the DOJ’s reference.  Just for giggles, try hitting the news tab. You’ll be interested by what you don’t find.

The narrative of racism being only a white on black issue will have been upheld, regardless of the facts in the case, and the political aims of people like Ike Brown will have been aided, upheld and reinforced. They will never face the facts, because they don’t need to.  They control the narrative, already. And that is their path to continuing power.

The activists masqurading as layers in the Civil Rights division know it, too.

This is probably one of the worst cases of intentional voting discrimination that the Justice Department has prosecuted since the 1960s. But the lawsuit was filed only after a vicious internal fight in the Civil Rights Division. Left-wing career lawyers in the Voting Section made it abundantly clear that they didn’t want to use the Voting Rights Act to protect white voters, no matter how egregious the violations. The former Voting Section chief even deleted the recommendation to file suit from the memo sent up to the Bush political appointees running the division. Other partisan career lawyers refused to work on the case. One who went to Noxubee County as an observer admitted to another lawyer that if he had seen the same type of illegal behavior being committed against black voters, he would have been outraged. But he wanted nothing to do with a suit filed on behalf of white voters.

Are you getting the message yet, America?

Michael A. Lindenberger, Time, argues:

[T]he best way out of the intractable legal wars over gay[sic] marriage is to take marriage out of the hands of the government altogether

Best for whom?   There is no need to treat same sex coupling as if it were the same as traditional marriage.

I am neither a lawyer, play one on television, nor give press conferences pretending to me one.    In other words, I am not Barack Obama,  Helene Cooper, New York Times:

WASHINGTON – President Obama vowed to try to stop the faltering insurance giant American International Group from paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives, as the administration scrambled to avert a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street that could complicate Mr. Obama’s economic recovery agenda.

“In the last six months, A.I.G. has received substantial sums from the U.S. Treasury,” Mr. Obama said. He added that he had asked Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner “to use that leverage and pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.”

While I an not a lawyer, unlike the President who claims to be a lawyer, I realize that first year law students are required to study contract law.   In other words I have seen The Paper Chase.   Evidently watching old movies leaves me with a better know of law than the President.   Further, while bankrupcy judges have the power to void employment contracts, the President has no such authority delegated to him by the Constitution, nasty thing that.

More over, Karl, Patterico’s Pontifications, wants to know why BO limiting his rage to AIG employees while ignoring public employees who took AIG money:

As Pres. Obama tries to lead the “outrage” over bonuses paid to execs at troubled insurance giant AIG – and AIG’s payments to foreign banks, etc. – with the taxpayers’ money, let’s take a moment to remember which taxpayer employees got paid by AIG:

 So what do Senators, Dodd, Baucus, Kerry, McCain and Schumer have to say?

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble.

This is the Motel edition.

• The Religion Of Peace: Soeren Kern reports that guy who beheaded a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Canada was found ‘not criminally responsible’? I have been far less than impressed with what passes for justice in Canada for some time, now. This does naught but reinforce that perception. Ya know, I wonder if the guy who behaded his wife over here in the Buffalo Southtowns is watching this and thinking he should have gone to Canada…
•  Population Shifts and what they bring with them:  I’m hearing the HIV/AIDS rate in DC is up to around 3%.Go ahead, and tell me this sudden rise has nothing to do with the recent shift of power inside the beltway. Tell me this has nothing to do with the sudden influx of Democrats in the last few months, that the locals are telling us about. Just another data blip to show us who it is we’re dealing with, I guess. Of course, watch the reaction these comments get. But before you spout, when government grows, so does the DC population. When government grows, so does the number of people who believe in, and work in, big government. Do the math and get back to me.
• 27 year old geriatrics: Oh, good God do I feel old…
• Does he have a clue? So many have started to question if Obama really knows what he’s doing that it’s become the hot topic on the sphere this week.  Oh, I think he does. I suspect the issue is that we’re not willing to admit to ourselves what it is he’s doing, preferring instead to think he’s trying to solve our problems. I’m currently working on an article that explores those thoughts. It’ll likely go to Pajams Media sometime Thursday or Friday. For the meantime, though ponder that even his supporters are asking questions.
• Gee, ya think?
  

  Tea Part in Cincy over the weekend

  — WASHINGTON —The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street, worried that anger at financial institutions could also end up being directed at Congress and the White House and could complicate President Obama’s agenda.

  Heh.  My guess? The word on the ever increasingly large and vocal Tea Parties, and the coverage they’re getting  is penetrating the mist that forever surrounds Foggy Bottom. The naysayers not withstanding, (Sorry, Neal, but what it is)  We ARE making a difference.  And I’ll tell you what; If the GOP and the libertarians manage to come out in front of this lynch mob and orginize it into a parade, they’ll win bigtime in the next two cycles.  If not, forget it. It’s over. They’re not going to do that my offerin up another centrist like McCain, or Bush. Real Conservatives, guys. It’s the only way forward.

• Time for the Bonus round: In fairness to Neal, though, he gets this one right, about the AIG Bonus nonsense:
  

  Over the weekend, one of the big stories was these AIG bonuses. If you’ll remember, AIG has received three government bailouts totaling $180 billion. But yesterday, the company paid out $165 million in bonuses to employees. The fact that AIG had to pay millions in bonuses, considering its massive failings, has politicians irate. Politicians don’t get irate when millions of dollars are spent by government on blueberry research or lobster farms .. but let the private sector pay that type of money pursuant to a contract and all hell breaks loose. We’re certainly not at all shocked to find that one of the ticked-off politicians is none other than Barney Frank. He says that we need to figure out whether or not these bonuses are “legally recoverable.” Barney wants to know, “Who said and at what point, ‘We’re going to give these bonuses no matter what.’ And I do think it’s inappropriate for those people to stay in power at that company.”

  Where in the constitution is any of this written, Barney?  If rewarding failure is objectionable, why is Barney Frank still in office? If it were not for the voters of his state rewarding failure, several times over, Frank would have been forced to move his DC homosexual prostitution ring to a building off the Back Bay, somewhere, years ago. And as a parting shot, consider this; You’ve got an employee who managed to help the company turn a fair profit (According to Obama, just the other day) in spite of it all. Wouldn’t you say a performance bonus is called for?

  Robert Reich is screaming that the administration’s failure to stop this is a sign that “our democracy is seriously broken” . Well, no, Shortstop, it means that the Administration has been going into areas it was never supposed to in the first place.  It also means that the administration is incompetent to the task it unconstitutionally set itself. Either way that gets argued the fault rests on Obama  and the Democrat Congress.  Who voted for the bill without jolly well reading it? Who decided taxpayer money needed to be spent? Who was it who told us we were in such a crisis?  It was the Democrats, at all points.  So, please, Democrats, spare us the faux outrage. It’s in your laps now. Don’t try to pass the blame to someone else. This one’s all yours. The fault is not capitalism, or private companies. It’s the fault of government by Democrats. AIG is acting like a business, and hard as you try there will be no criminal charges against them. The Democrat run administration and the Democrat run Congress, meanwhile acted well outside their Constitutional authority and demonstrably screwed it up. Who of the two acted outside their purview?  The screaming we see from Obama and the leading Democrats in both houses on this issue is them tossing up a smoke screen and hoping nobody will notice. VDH has more. So does Bruce McQuain.

• Yes, I’m watching Pakistan implode. Given the current occupant of the White House, why should any of this be a shock?  And yes, I mean that. Consider the balance act that we took with that hellhole for how many years? You tell ME… has there been any moves to keep the place afloat from this WH since Obama took over? And guess where the nukes in that country will end up, people? Change we can believe in?
• C-Man:  Don Imus is reporting prostate cancer.  Sad. Well, let’s wish him the best. But I wonder how long it’s going to take before we hear the usual suspcts crowing about how the chickens have come home to roost… and you KNOW it’ll happen.
• The numbers say: Rasmussen saysObama’s approval ratings  are down to their lowest point… a plus 4.
• Hey, Jonah: Damn right, it’s not a good thing. But that’s simply the way of it when Democrats are in charge. The markets don’t react to business realities they react to government. Then Dmeocrats wonder why things get disconnected from business reality. They do it every stinking time.
• No Goal: Speaking of Jonah… go ahead and tell me again how the US is responsible for the cycle of violence in Iraq.

Is Barack Obama fundamentally stupid or just inherently dishonest, video:

Hat tips, Catherine Favazza, and Kim Priestap, Wizbang.  Go Kate, go.

For the record, I agree with the Strutting Delaware Blue Hen, also as known as Joe Biden.   The President has to act.   All this one seems to able to do is to give pretty sounding campaign speeches.  In a time of crisis, all this President has to offer is mere words.

John Hawkins over at Right Wing News,  has the result of a poll he’s been taking, to determine the 50 most popular right of center websites. Of course, BitsBlog isn’t on it.  (mumble) I do notice that Pajamas Media where I also write, is.

The basic problem with the Obama administration is  simple incompetence.  Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News:

Not long ago, after a string of especially bad days for the Obama administration, a veteran Democratic pol approached me with a pained look on his face and asked, “Do you think they know what they’re doing?”

Bill Low, Star-Telegram:

In the big scheme of things, the mistakes made by President Barack Obama thus far are relatively minor, but they are forming a pattern that shows serious weakness. It is a weakness that may be interpreted by our friends and our enemies as indicative of a flaw they can use to their own advantage

L. Brent Bozell, Pittsburg Tribune:

Think about it. Obama’s inauguration speech? The market dropped. Obama’s first State of the Union-style speech to Congress? The market dropped. Obama’s Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner tried to explain their underbaked bank rescue plan in February? The market dropped almost 400 points.

Even Obama’s most fervent fans — like Chris Matthews — have put on the tube a chart showing the stock market’s precipitous decline since Obama’s victory. That is a sober political and economic reality for Team Obama, and no happy talk is going to fix it

Seldom has a person with no little actual talent, and so massive of an ego, achieved such high office.

No film at Eleven, but it could get hairy in New Jersey this summer..

Hat tip:Jonah Goldberg, National Review.

Reports from all over tonight, that Actor Ron Silver has died.  He’d been fighting cancer for some time.  Roger Simon, in writing some notes at Pajamas Media, tonight, remembers his friend;

Then 9/11 came and Ron and I were thrown together once again. We were 9/11 Democrats. We talked on the phone about our journey and the alienation we were feeling from some our friends, but we didn’t come face-to-face until the Republican Convention of 2004. I was a blogger there and feeling rather weird – an old leftie gone right – but there was Ron, far more out than I was, speaking to the entire convention. And he was brilliant. The man could speak in public as well as almost any politician and he had more intellectual background than almost all of them too. He swept the convention audience off their feet.

Michelle Malkin has Ron’s speech to that convention, up.

He had finally come, with the help of the 9/11 attack, to see the intrinsic contradictions in the left of today:

Even though I am a well-recognized liberal on many issues confronting our society today, I find it ironic that many human rights advocates and outspoken members of my own entertainment community are often on the front lines to protest repression, for which I applaud them but they are usually the first ones to oppose any use of force to take care of these horrors that they catalogue repeatedly.

Given the atmosphere of Hollywood today it takes a special kind of individual who while working in that environment can be so outspoken in opposition to the prevalent political winds there. As I said the night he made that speech:

I can’t imagine him being very popular in Hollywood after telling the left they’ve been trying to have to both ways.. protesting against violent acts but never wanting to take actions against the violent.

Here was a man of unique courage.